Escapade | Ninjago AU

Chapter 13

Kai's POV

My sister snores as she lies curled up in a ball on the seat of my carriage. When she finally dozed off, I draped a blanket over her to keep her warm, so a chill didn't wake her up. She deserves the sleep. The discovery that her soulmate is still alive hit her hard. She's convinced he left her by choice. I don't think that's the case.

When Jay arrived at my place, he was an absolute mess. He wasn't with Zane (which I'm now curious about since they left Nya's place together), so something big must have happened. He was covered in filth and looked like a wreck. Clearly, something was really wrong.

When he said that he "lost" his soulmate, I assumed she died (like anyone would), but here she is, lying in front of me. Did he think that she died? There's no way since Nya made it seem like she didn't leave their house for a long time. Something else must've happened.

I look at her with empathy. I know how it feels to lose your soulmate. It hurts. It feels like your heart is constantly being squeezed. It feels like your appetite is so little that you're going to die of starvation without realizing it. It feels like you've lost yourself. It feels like you'll never be happy again.

I want to be mad at Jay for making her feel like this. Hell, Jay and her being soulmates in general makes me a bit uncomfortable, but I can't be mad at him. I know damn well how hard it must have been to leave her.

How Nya is feeling is exactly how I never wanted Skylor to feel. I never wanted her to feel like I didn't love her, like I wouldn't do anything for her. I left because I had to, and Jay must've left because he had to. That's hard for Nya to understand (which makes sense cause I'd feel the same way if I was in her shoes), but I'm sure Jay will help clear things up when we see him. If I find out that he left her without reason, however, I won't hesitate to rough him up a little on Nya's behalf.

I watch us drive past trees through the window. Just how far we've traveled from home is unsettling. It's been hundreds of years since I went outside of my kingdom. The world has definitely changed, and even though I've been getting news about it, I'm still sure I'm not ready to go out there. I'm still a wanted man after all.

But I'll be fine. I'm the master of fire. Even if I'm wanted, their new technology surely can't beat me, can it? Something that's more powerful than the elemental masters of creation is a scary thought. We'd be completely vulnerable for the first time in history.

"Morning," grumbling, my sister rubs her eyes, looking over at me. "Why didn't you wake me up?"

"Why would I? I wasn't up that long without you anyways," I reassure her. "We're going to get there today. I don't know when though. I haven't asked our driver."

"Joy," she snarks, sitting up and combing her fingers through her hair. She's clearly working hard to keep her feelings contained. She's a lot calmer (on the outside at least) than yesterday, but it's still clear how she's feeling.

"Once we get him to join us, are we going to go save the elemental army that's kidnapped, or are we going to try to find another one of us?" I ask her. I kind of blindly came along (not that I would do anything different if I were to do it again), so I'm curious about her plan moving forward. I have no idea where her head is at with any of it. How many of us is she hoping to find? Having two is a miracle in itself.

"We should go in as strong as possible, but we can't wait too long to save the army. There are people I care about that are captured. I say we try to get at least 3 of you all before going in just to prevent being caught. What exactly do you know about where they're being held?" she asks, her forehead wrinkled with worry.

"It's swarmed with unnatural elementals, but that's about it. I just had my scouts watching for our own protection," I admit. "Is someone special to you inside of there?"